Eating yellow food makes you happier, according to actual science.

Eating yellow food makes you happier, according to actual science.

As we approach ever closer to the days when we’ll leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark, it’s easy to start feeling a little down.

Metro reports that you can’t even remember what those halcyon days of summer were like anymore. But if you’re starting to get a touch of S.A.D, fear not because you can actually protect your inner cheerfulness. By eating more yellow foods, apparently. According a study by The Happy Egg Company, eating yellow foods releases significant levels of happy hormones because we associate bright colour with joy. Amazingly, 70% of us link sunny-coloured foods to feeling happy. The most happy inducing food?

61% said a plate of omelettes made them the most cheerful. Macaroni cheese is the next most popular (obviously), followed by bananas and pancakes.

Over two thirds of us want to see more yellow in our fridges, while 30% of people associate yellow with happiness over any other colour. But why? Psychologists suggest that we start to react positively to the colour from a young age, thanks to association with the warmth of sunshine and brightly coloured children’s toys. Yellow also resonates with our left – or logic – side of the brain which makes us perceive it as fun and happy. Red foods are our next favourite, followed by brown (confirming that we really are a nation of carb-lovers).

Part of the study involved measuring people’s response time when answering questions about food colours and happiness. When choosing yellow, the overall response time was 31% faster than any other colour. ‘There is lots of research to show how colour can affect our emotions, but we were surprised to discover that so many yellow food groups evoked such strong positive feelings as well as stimulating taste buds,’ says neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis. ‘The research revealed that 30% more people associate yellow with happiness than the other colours tested and 62% of us want to see more yellow in our fridge.’